Police organisation
Kripos
Norway’s national unit against organised and other serious crime, established in 1959 and given prosecutorial authority in 2005.
At a glance
- Official name
- Kripos
- System
- Norway
- Level of government
- National
- Kind of body
- Criminal investigation agency
- Status
- Currently operating
- Official website
- https://www.politiet.no/om-politiet/organisasjonen/sarorganene/kripos/ — confirmed against the organisation’s own pages on 13 September 2026.
- Facts last checked against sources
- 13 September 2026
What it is
Kripos is "den nasjonale enhet for bekjempelse av organisert og annen alvorlig kriminalitet". Two dates on its own page tell the institutional story: founded in 1959 as an investigative unit, and given prosecutorial authority only in 2005. A body that investigates and a body that may charge are different things, and Kripos was the first for forty-six years before it became both.
What it covers
National, under the Police Directorate.
Broad responsibilities
- Combating organised and other serious crime, as the national unit for it
Who it answers to
Under Politidirektoratet.
Elsewhere on this site
- Who polices what — how Norway is structured, against other systems
Other organisations to compare
- Politiet — Norway
- Økokrim — Norway
- Utrykningspolitiet — Norway
Where this connects
Institutions: National police.
Sources
Politiet (Norwegian Police Service) · Institutional (self-description) · link verified 2026-09-13
SCOPE: Kripos only. The service’s own page, read directly. Supports that Kripos is "den nasjonale enhet for bekjempelse av organisert og annen alvorlig kriminalitet"; that it was established in 1959; that it gained prosecutorial authority in 2005; and that it sits under the Police Directorate. The staffing figure on the page is the unit’s own and is NOT republished.
Politiet (Norwegian Police Service) · Institutional (self-description) · link verified 2026-09-13
SCOPE: the organisational units of the Norwegian police. The service’s own organisation page, read directly. Supports that the service comprises Politidirektoratet, twelve named politidistrikter (Agder, Finnmark, Innlandet, Møre og Romsdal, Nordland, Oslo, Sør-Vest, Sør-Øst, Troms, Trøndelag, Vest, Øst) and særorganer including Kripos, Nasjonalt ID-senter, Politiets fellestjenester, Politiets IT-enhet, Politihøgskolen, Utrykningspolitiet and Økokrim. The page lists these units WITHOUT describing what each does, so no function is asserted for any særorgan from this source, and the position of PST is not established by it.